The Timekeepers
Prologue Long ago, in each Clan, there was one cat who decided on the future of their Clans. They could help their Clans by travelling through time. Everything was perfect in the Clans of old because of them. They were known as the Timekeepers. But slowly, over the time that they had a firm hold on, other cats wanted their power. The five Timekeepers at that time were murdered. But their apprentices survived. They ran from the Clans. And they left a trail of destruction behind them. Famine, drought, disease, turmoil. The Clans' perfect world was ruined. They thought the Timekeepers had abandoned them. They were hurt and distraught. So the Timekeepers were outlawed. Their stories vanished with new generations. As far as any Clan cat knew, there were no such thing as aTimekeeper. That was, until a young cat called Stormpaw met one. Chapter 1 A storm was brewing. A beautiful light cream she-cat sat and watched it unfold. "It's over, Pearlblossom," a black tom mewed, limping up behind her. His paw was twisted out of shape, and he was missing an eye. "We will be hunted down, one by one. No Timekeeper will be safe." "Brokensoul, what will happen to our daughter?" Pearlblossom whispered. She bent down and nuzzled her young dark grey she-kit. "She's both a pure-blooded Timekeeper and half-Clan. She'll..." Brokensoul trailed off. "Die? Is that what you think?!" Pearlblossom raised her head to the dark, gathering clouds. "No. It won't happen. I won't let it.Stormkit will not die!" "Stormkit?" "I'll name her after the storm that's up there, so she'll never forget this day. She'll never forget she's a Timekeeper." Pearlblossom looked at their sleeping kit, then up at her mate. "She will always be one of us." "We can't take her to any of the Clans in the forest. There's only one option." "SkyClan..." Pearlblossom murmured, uncertainty in her eyes. "A sanctuary," Brokensoul reassured her. "The Clans have long since forgotten about SkyClan." "Okay." Pearblossom stood up, picking up the she-kit by the scruff. "We must hurry." When Stormkit's mother and father reached SkyClan, rain soaked their pelts, slicking them black. Pearlblossom let out a yowl to alert the Clan, then licked her kit's forehead. Brokensoul dropped a stone engraved with a black butterfly onto the ground next to her. "Whatever happens now, you'll always be one of us," Brokensoul mewed to the kit, who opened her golden eyes and mewled in protest. "You'll always be a Timekeeper." Chapter 2 Rain poured outside the den. Stormpaw yawned as she felt a droplet fell onto her nose. "The roof's leaking again," she murmured, opening one eye to see her friend Flamepaw shifting in her nest. "Yeah, I already know that," the flame-coloured ginger apprentice mewed. As Stormpaw opened her eyes fully, she saw that her friend was soaking wet and shivering. "Flamepaw!" she yowled. "Whas goeen urn?" Crystalpaw yawned. "Is Coalfrost okay?" The light golden tabby she-cat tried to drag herself to her paws to walk to the medicine den where her sick older brother slept, but fell down again with exhaustion. "You've been up nearly the whole night looking after him," Resinpaw mewed, resting his tail on Crystalpaw's shoulder for a brief moment. "Rest. I'm sure Cherrypetal is doing the best she can for him in the medicine den, and we'll go check on him soon." The reddish brown tom gave the other apprentices meaningful looks, and they all nodded. "There's definitely something going on between those two," Stormpaw heard Flamepaw whisper to Sunpaw. "Flamepaw, let's go fix the roof," Stormpaw mewed hurriedly. She guided Flamepaw out of the den. "Hey!" Flamepaw yowled. "Sorry," she apologised. "But we shouldn't annoy Crystalpaw. Resinpaw makes her happy." She picked up a bracken frond and slotted in the gap. "There, that should do." "Yes, but..." Flamepaw winced as a thorn pricked her pad. "He's my brother. He's always mooning over Crystalpaw. Why can't he just greet me once in a while? It's like we're not even littermates anymore. And Crystalpaw doesn't even care for him. She's obsessed with Coalfrost's health." "I wish I had siblings, but I don't. I just..." Stormpaw turned away. Suddenly, something caught her eye. A black tom was slinking towards the camp entrance. Coalfrost? He checked that no one was looking, then bounded away upstream, brushing the reeds that marked the entrance to the new warriors den. "Did you see that?" she asked Flamepaw. "See what?" Flamepaw mewed inquisitively. "Never mind," Stormpaw dismissed it. "It was nothing. Just a rabbit that got away." Chapter 3 Stormpaw could feel the vibrations resonating from the dove as it sang its song, then preened its white feathers, caressing the individual strands of each feather with its beak. "So beautiful..." she whispered, in awe. "It's huge! It'll be able to feed all the apprentices!" Flamepaw hissed, a little too loudly. "Maybe it's best if you're a little quieter," Sunpaw whispered to Flamepaw, resting his tail on her shoulder. "We don't want to mess up on our first hunting trip!" "Now, remember to focus on your prey." Irisheart, Stormpaw's mentor, came down and crouched next to them. She demonstrated the hunter's crouch, and Stormpaw quickly copied. "Good, Stormpaw. Feel the bird. Become the bird." Stormpaw was tempted to retort, but remained still. "Irisheart, that's too big for Stormpaw," Poppyheart, Irisheart's sister and Flamepaw's mentor mewed. "We should leave." "Yes, let's go to the Twolegplace fence to hunt," Mistynight, Sunpaw's mentor mewed. "Will you just shut up for a second?" Irisheart hissed. The white she cat with faint black and golden tabby stripe ripples was kind, but very stubborn and firey, just like Stormpaw. "I know what I'm doing. Now, Stormpaw, when you're ready, pounce. Remember to coil your muscles and hold the tension for a while to get as much propulsion as you can. Most of all, visualise your every move. Good luck." Irisheart got to her paws and pushed the patrol back into the shadows so the dove wouldn't see them. Stormpaw slunk forward, keeping her tail flat but not swishing the leaves up. When she was close enough, she bunched her haunches, holding the tension before springing forward. She landed right on the dove. Everything was a haze of blood as she drove her teeth into its neck. She felt its body go limp underneath her grip and immediately dropped it in shock. "Nice one, Stormpaw!" Flamepaw yowled. I killed it. Stormpaw stared in disbelief at the limp dove, its white body smeared with blood. Something so pure... how could I do this? She looked up and saw a dark shape watching her from the bushes, its blue eyes glowing in amusement. Coalfrost. Is he... mocking me? The last thing she saw was his face through her fast closing eyelids, and then she blacked out. Chapter 4 When she woke up, she wasn't awake at all. Her eyelids wouldn't open, as if they were too tired to open but too awake to go back to sleep. She was stuck in a half- conscious nightmare, and she found herself unable to cry out. It was like her throat was dry as the sun. In her nightmare, it was raining and two shadowy cats were standing over her. Their shapes looked oddly familiar. She looked down at her paws. They were fluffy, like a kit's fur. When she looked, up again, the cats came into focus. A grey tom and a cream she-cat- but who were they? Wait... this is not a nightmare... this is... a memory! Are these cats my parents? One of them- her father?- dropped a stone on the ground next to her. It was more beautiful than any of the pebbles in the river, and it shone with light that seemed to resinate from the lighter cracks inside in its creamy surface. And then there was the black butterfly engraved on it... its wings were decorated with beautiful, networked ebony lines. It was more beautiful than the dove, more beautiful than anything she ever had seen or ever would've seen after this memory. The stone was beauty in its purest form. "No matter what happens now, you'll always be a..." It was then that Stormpaw realised she was waking up. "A what? Who am I?" Stormpaw yowled as she sat bolt upright, her eyes wide. It was too late. She was awake. She spent the day staring at the rock walls of the medicine den, constantly thinking about her dream, the stone, and her parents. Where did the stone go? Can inanimate objects just move like that? No... some cat must have taken it. Some cat has it, som''ewhere. '' "Stormpaw!" Sunpaw's voice echoed through the den. "Can I come in?" "Okay," she mewed. Sunpaw slipped through the entrance to the den. His shoulders were lifted high and his coat glistened in what sun shone into the den. He had a strange, powerful ambience about him today... it was unlike him. "What's up with you today, Sunpaw?" she asked. "Did something happen?" "I topped my hunting assessment," he mewed proudly. "I caught two fat pigeons and a vole." "That's great, Sunpaw!" Stormpaw mewed happily. "What about you? Are you doing okay?" His eyes looked concerned. "Erm... yeah..." Stormpaw murmured. She couldn't tell him about the stone... what if he and the other apprentices thought she was weird? "That's good," Sunpaw mewed, but his eyes avoided her, as if he was worried about something. She had already guessed what it was. "Your father would have been proud of you today," she mewed. Sunpaw's head lifted and his expression softened a little. "Thanks, but I... I still don't think I can fill his pawprints. I still can't fight like he could. He was Lionsoul, the greatest fighter the Clans have ever seen. I'm just his good for nothing kit." "You are good for something!" Stormpaw mewed defiantly. "Don't be so hard on yourself!" "Yeah? I have the shoulders of a she-cat, the fighting skill of a kit and some outcast of a mother who I don't even know. What do I have to offer the Clan?" "When... when you speak sometimes, your words seem really powerful. And you can be powerful too. You're a great hunter, and every kit in the Clan admires you for it. You'll make a really good warrior some day." "Stormpaw..." Sunpaw trailed off as if the words he was going to speak fell off his tongue. "Nevermind. I'll see you later. Rest up, okay?" "Okay," she mewed, snuggling down into her nest, finally able to drift off to sleep again. Chapter 5 When Stormpaw woke up, it was nightfall. Her head had finally cleared properly. "Are you sure you're okay?" Frondpaw, the medicine cat apprentice, asked tentatively. "Yeah, I'm fine. Tell Brackenfrost I'm grateful for his healing skills, as always." "I will. Oh, and Stormpaw?" Stormpaw whipped around, puzzled. "Coalfrost came in to see you. He wants to tell you something." What could he possibly want to tell me? "Do you know what?" she asked cautiously. She didn't want to look as interested as she was- there wasn't much respect for a warrior like Coalfrost in SkyClan. Frondpaw shrugged. "As if Coalfrost would tell me anything. That tom has got ice in his heart and his mind. Worrying his little sister like that... it's horrible. You don't know how many times Brackenfrost and I get a visit from that tormented young she-cat." "Young? You're young yourself." "Still older than you," Frondpaw mewed cheekily. "By one moon!" Stormpaw mewed, pretending to be outraged. "Frondpaw!" Brackenfrost called to his apprentice from Harrystar's den. "Coming!" Frondpaw called, turning back to Stormpaw. "See you later, Stormpaw. Be careful." With that, the black she-cat bounded away. "Wait, what do you mean?" she called, but Frondpaw had disappeared. What did she mean by 'be careful?' Chapter 6 The forest was so beautiful in leaf-fall. There was no other way to describe it- the leaves marbled the forest floor, turned shades of red and gold by the sun shining through the growing holes in the canopy above. The leaves crushed and cracked ominously under Stormpaw's paws as she walked, the only sounds in an eerie silence that had settled over the forest. Up ahead she saw tall grasses waving in the breeze that had sprung up, shades of gold and green silhouetted against the cobalt sky. She had reached the meadow outside one of the small patches of forest further away from the top of the SkyClan gorge. It had once been a popular hunting spot, but after a harsh few seasons it had been abandoned and given time to regenerate. She tasted the air and realised in alarm that she could not scent prey. She wasn't hungry, but it was an odd occurance in this place. A sudden realisation came over her. Someone's been here. '' That's when she heard a twig snap behind her, loud and clear, as if it had almost been done deliberately. "Coalfrost," she mewed without thinking. "Stormpaw," he replied with what little courtesy he had. One of his claws rested on the twig he had just snapped. His expression was unreadable, as usual, but Stormpaw knew that a cat with a dark pelt colour had to be nervous in a place like this, even among the tall grasses that grew on the outskirts of the patches of forest dotted across the green landscape. "I've been following you for quite some time now. You really need to work on using your senses of hearing and sight more." "I can use them just fine," she snapped, losing her temper in an instant. She realised she had lost it so quickly and turned away, embarrassed. "I'm good at hunting," she added coolly. "I bet you are," Coalfrost teased. She turned back to look at him again and saw his normally teasing face harden with seriousness. "But that's not what you came here to talk to me about, right?" She sat down and curled her tail around her paws, taking the sight of him in. He was longer than the other cats she knew, and sleeker. His coat had a blue sheen to it in this light, and his eyes were a lighter blueish purple than usual. He was... beautiful. But she would never tell him that. Besides, his looks were the only thing he had going for him, and she didn't want awful cats like him to get the wrong idea. "Yes. I thought you might have guessed, O Great Hunter." She pretended to ignore his comment as he twitched his whiskers in amusement. "I was... passing the medicine den earlier, when I felt the prescence of something... irregular." ''Felt it? What in StarClan's name is he... "I found this." He swept his tail aside, and there, half-buried in the fresh grass, was her stone, the butterfly shining the same colour as Coalfrost's coat in the sunlight. "My stone!" Chapter 7 "Ah, so it is yours," he mewed in amusement. "I thought as much." She lunged forward to claim it, but he swept his tail over it and brought it behind him with ease. "Give it back!" she yowled, then shut her mouth as quickly as she realised that there was great desparation in her voice. "Where did you get this, I wonder?" Coalfrost went on, ignoring her. "Could it be that you aren't from the Clans? But no... that couldn't work out for you... SkyClan only welcomes kittypets if they want to be daylight warriors. Any cat else could get thrown out." It was an unwritten rule in SkyClan. No cat from the outside except, in SkyClan's exceptional case, a daylight warrior, was allowed in any Clan. Even then, not many cats trusted the daylight warriors, despite the SkyClan leader, Harrystar, being a former one. It was lucky SkyClan wasn't a well known Clan. So why did SkyClan take me in? That thought had been hidden in Stormpaw's mind for a very long time, and it had resurfaced in less than a second. "Please give it back! It's the only memory I have of my parents!" She saw Coalfrost's face stiffen in surprise for a second before it resumed its nomal, infuriatingly calm expression. "Come on," he mewed, turning around. "I'm going to take you to meet some people. They know who you are." "I'm not going anywhere with you unless somebody knows I am with you." Coalfrost sighed. "I'm not going to do anything weird, you mouse-brained kit." "Kit?!" Stormpaw was fuming. "Nice one, fox-dung! You've just made up my mind! I'll never go with you." "Don't you want to know what your stone means?" Stormpaw opened her mouth and then closed it again. "I'll meet you back here at sunrise tomorrow. Be ready." As Coalfrost walked away, leaving Stormpaw standing in the meadow, he twitched his whiskers in amusement. For once, he had rendered her speechless. Chapter 8 I don't know why I agreed to do this. Before long, Stormpaw was up to her belly fur in cold, icy water flowing down from the mouth of the river that ran through SkyClan's gorge. Getting to where she was now, where the water flowed down from the mountain cold and pure as freshly fallen snow, had been a day's trek from the camp. A day's trek with Coalfrost. Coalfrost! He had been teasing her all the way. "Watch your step, Mossypaws," he had called over his shoulder without lifting a paw to help her when she slipped on a rock in an icy stream. "Climb a bit faster, will you? You're slower than a snail climbing a mountain!" he had exclaimed when they were climbing up an ancient landslide full of huge boulders. That mouse-brained, stupid, fox-hearted piece of... urgh... ah... he annoys me so much I can't even think straight! "Here we are." Coalfrost suddenly stopped. She hadn't even realised that they had left the stream behind and were standing at the mouth of a cave that yawned at the base of a shale cliff. The stream bubbled nearby. "Finally! I'm so hungry, and tired, and-" "Shut up, will you?" Coalfrost sighed exasperantly. "They're watching you." Stormpaw's mouth snapped shut in alarm. She glanced at the cave in front of them, its entrance enveloped in shadows. A small breeze began to blow, ruffling her fur, but it did not ease her nervousness. Suddenly, a high-pitched mrrow of laughter drifted from the cave down to them on the wind. A she-cat who looked to be about the age of a senior warrior stepped out of the shadows. Well, only the outline of a she-cat, sketched out in gray, almost transparent lines. She seemed to be as clear as the pure mountain water- the colours of wherever she stood seemed to become her pelt colour. "Greetings, Visi." Coalfrost mewed. "And to you, Chaos," the she-cat replied. Her voice sounded like a bird's song in winter; beautiful but raspy. Wait, Chaos?! "Coalfrost, why did she just call you that?" Stormpaw hissed. Realising her rude mistake of ignoring the other cat she turned back towards the she-cat at the cave's entrance. "Why did you just call him that?" "I'll explain that later," Coalfrost mewed sharply before the she-cat could answer. "Stormpaw this is Invisibility. We call her Visi for obvious reasons. Invisibility, this is-" "I know who she is," Invisibility interrupted him calmly. With a shock Stormpaw realised that she was becoming less transparent with each passing moment. Finally Visi stood before them in her true form. She was pure white- her pelt, her eyes, her claws which she flexed with impatience. She yawned- it seemed that her transformation had tired her- and Stormpaw could see that every one of her teeth was unnaturally white. Stormpaw felt very uneasy, but suddenly, her right hind leg tingled, and she looked down to where her butterfly stone was strapped to her leg with tough, dark green mountain vines she and Coalfrost had found growing not far from SkyClan territory. Instantly, she felt calmer. "So you have brought her," Visi said finally, turning around to face the cave's dark entrance. "Come, young one. Bring your Power Stone with you." What's a Power Stone? ''One more question swirled into the haze of Stormpaw's thoughts. Stormpaw, desperate to find out more, bounded after the she-cat and into the cave. She could hear Coalfrost's steps behind her as she slipped into the void of shadows. Chapter 9 With every step she took into the cave, Stormpaw felt her throat tighten more and more- if it was because of fear or of excitement or even longing, she did not know. She could no longer see the white pelt of Visi; perhaps she had faded into a mere outline once more for whatever reason. However, she could still hear the white she-cat's steps in front of her. There was something about not being able to see that made her trust more in her other senses, and it felt good. She could feel the same feelings radiating off Coalfrost like summer heat, although he did not show any other signs of them. Finally, the world around her began to lighten, and the cave's pale grey walls, wet with water that dripped from underground streams and covered in moss, became visible. The cave opened up to a chamber ahead. Low voices echoed off the walls inside. As they got closer Stormpaw could make out the pelt of a blue-gray she-cat, a white she-cat and a black tom. "We're here," Visi mewed with a yawn. Clearly the whole underground-chamber-with-cats-inside thing didn't faze her. When they arrived at the entrance Stormpaw realised there were even more cats than she thought. She could see a long-furred pale golden she-cat and a tiny grey she-cat, as well as a bright flame-coloured tom, a pale silver she-cat and an earthy brown tom. The chamber itself was round, and it was pleasantly and surprisingly warm inside. Soft green moss and the occasional shrub or sapling carpeted the floor. Light and mist spilled in from a hole in the top of the chamber, where the grey sky outside was visible. "Welcome back, Chaos," the blue-grey she-cat mewed. Her eyes seemed to change colour from blue to silver and to green and grey, like the water of the river that ran through the SkyClan camp. ''There's that name again, Stormpaw thought.'' But what does it have to do with Coalfrost? '' "Water." Coalfrost dipped his head to her politely. The she-cat snarled. "Don't call me my mother's name," she growled. "You may all be content with taking the names of your parents, but I certainly am not! I am an individual, and I have my own name!" "Relax, Flood," the flame-coloured tom mewed, resting his tail on her shoulder. "He knew you first by that name. It was the same for me." "But brother, Fire is your only name!" Flood whined. "Air and Earth are also the same as you!" She flicked her tail towards the pale silver she-cat and brown tom in turn. "Chaos always calls me by that- that... name... to deliberately anger me!" "He teases everyone," Stormpaw put in without thinking, and she stepped into the room. Every single cat stopped dead. Flood's mouth hung open in mid-speech. "Welcome, daughter of Beauty and Ugliness," the pale silver she-cat, Air, mewed. "Welcome to the Cave of Time." Chapter 10 "The Cave of... Time?" The name seemed to ring in Stormpaw's head over and over again like an echo. "Well, that's what we call it, but you don't have to." Fire's light tone seemed to vaporise the tension in the room in a flash. "Cats have called this place many things over the centuries," the brown tom, Earth, mewed gruffly. "The name's not very inventive." "As we are The Keepers of Time, or Timekeepers, it only seemed appropriate that this place should be given a nam to do with time," Fire went on, ignoring Earth. "Time...keeper? Just what- or who, rather- is a Timekeeper?" Stormpaw mewed, her voice wavering with shock. "We are the descendants of the former protectors of the Clans," Visi mewed. "We were chosen to bring balance to the Clans." "Chosen? More like we had the responsibility pushed onto us," the small grey she-cat scoffed. "Our parents just dumped our names and powers on us and ran. Now they're dead. The Clans hated us! The only reason they're not relentlessly hunting us now is because they've forgotten!" "It is alright, Plenty," Flood mewed, seeming to have composed herrself. "Memory will continue to make sure they forget." Her gaze slid towards the long-furred golden she-cat. "I have only locked away the memories," Memory mewed. "They haven't disappeared completely. If I made them disappear the cats of the Clans will feel empty. But if they remember, their instincts will lead to us being hunted again." "You keep saying Clans, Clans," Stormpaw mewed. "But there is only SkyClan!" Coalfrost- was that even his name?- let out a'' mrrow of laughter. "There are other Clans, mouse-brain. If you follow the SkyClan gorge north far enough, you will come to a forest. The Clans haven't lived there for a while now, but they are slowly starting to return. They are ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan and ShadowClan." "Once, we protected them all," Air mewed sadly. "But they really have forgotten about us." "As I told you, the memories are still there," Memory sighed. "I just locked them up so that they can't remember them. You really don't listen to people, you know that, Air?" Air blinked as if her brain had not registered what memory had said and went to sit by her brother Earth. "Most of us were killed by the Clans," Flood murmured wistfully. "The older of us with kits usually left them with the Clans. We left them with our symbol, the butterfly, on a stone, so they would remember but..." she trailed off. Stormpaw's heart skipped a beat. "My stone..." she whispered and immediately felt for it against her leg with her tail, but all she felt were vines. "Looking for this?" Chaos, a.k.a Coalfrost, twitched his ears cheekily and casually flicked his tail at her stone which was lying in the moss between his paws. "Chaos." Visi gave him a stern look. "A Timekeeper's stone is not something to be toyed with." The black tom pouted and pushed the stone back towards Stormpaw. He had the demeanour of an apprentice scolded by their mentor, not unlike Flood. That was when she realised that he wasn't so old after all. To her, he had always seemed older, more mature. But in fact he was the newest warrior in the Clan, a mere seven moons older than her- just over two seasons. Maybe... ''What am I thinking? He's a aggrivating, fox-hearted tom! She managed to compose herself, leaving no trace of her thoughts on her face. "Thank you, Chaos," she mewed through gritted teeth. "I'm guessing that's your real name." Chaos flinched a little, then shot her a murderous look. "Yes, it is. At least I know my real name, unlike a certain someone." Stormpaw's heart pounded in her head. What?! "Chaos, it's not the time for that," Visi growled. For a second Stormpaw thought she saw her eyes turn transparent. Then she turned to Stormpaw. "Please excuse Chaos. He is-" she paused for a moment as if thinking for a polite way to address the tom's problems. "A rude little piece of mouse-dung," Plenty meowed casually. Chaos' lavender eyes burned. Faint silver marks like flickers of flame crept up his right leg, slowly losing their transparency as his anger seemed to build. "Bite your tongue, you little-" "Chaos," Memory mewed, her voice as smooth and sweet as honey. "Maybe it would be better if you would be quiet for a while, yes?" She seemed to radiate the feeling of happiness from past times, making Stormpaw feel rather nostalgic. "Don't try and use your little nostalgia trick on me!" Chaos growled menacingly. I am the son of Chaos and Darkness and I swear I will-" "WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP?" Air yowled. Everyone seemed shocked that quiet, dreamy Air could let such a loud sound escape her mouth. Chaos went silent. "I'm going to get some fresh air," he growled and stalked outside, his tail twitching in annoyance. "Okay, now that that... problem.. is fixed, we can finally explain," Visi sighed. "Would you like to know about your past, Stormpaw?" Chapter 11 Stormpaw had never been more shocked in her life. "My... past?" Visi nodded. "Yes. We think we might know something about you that you don't know yourself. Or, rather, about your family and you." My family... who were they? "And that would be?" she asked, trying to suppress her excitement. "You're one of us." Somehow, with all the surprises today, this is the least suprising thing I've heard all day. "I guessed that already," she mewed. "I've always felt... different." "That's how we all felt from the start," Fire soothed. "But it'll all work out for you eventually. Now all we have to do is find your power-" "And your weakness," Visi mewed. "Every one of us has one." "Visi can't blend in on white backgrounds," Fire chuckled. "You can easily see her outline for some reason." "Fire, on the other paw, is not exactly water resistant even in a normal state," Visi retorted. "I always get hungry," Plenty offered. "And I'm super forgetful," Memory sighed. "My head is so full of other cats' memories that I can't find my own half the time." It was at that moment that Stormpaw remembered her catch two days ago. Blood. Chapter 12 It was getting dark when Chaos and Stormpaw began to trek back to camp. "We stayed out way too long," Chaos grumbled. "Now the Clan's going to think we're mates or something." "Mates?" Stormpaw felt her fur growing hot. "Never." "I don't care what you think," Chaos mewed. "Anyway, we'll come back in two moons time." He bounded over a boulder, silent as the stone itself. Stormpaw found herself stumbling a lot, whereas Chaos just glid over the rocks. "Coal- I mean, Chaos, when did you...." she began. "Hmmm?" He turned around, the last rays of the sun trying to catch his pelt, but withering. It was a scary sight, and she cringed at the thought of becoming like that for the first time. "When did you... find out that you were... y'know..." "When I was very young," he mewed bitterly. A/N: really have to stop typing Coalfrost x.x Category:Fanfiction